The public library in the United States is a community facility
dedicated to service to everyone. This broad concept of service,
however admirable, implies objectives which public librarians find
increasingly difficult to meet with their present limited resources
and staff. Because of limited resources, library programs and services
are spread thinly over a wide span dealing with education, information,
culture and recreation. Meager budgets must be stretched
to anticipate and respond to the extreme diversity of a constantly
shifting clientele. Responding to drastic changes in neighborhoods is
not a new experience for public library administrators and personnel.
Occasionally they have been lethargic in responding to changing situations,
but meeting social changes has always been a part of public
library history.
Today public librarians encounter inner-city problems far more
complicated than those of previous years. Creative new responses
are needed to meet this situation and the informational needs of the
residents of these urban centers. Social, political and economic
changes have always influenced approaches used by public libraries
to reach people and provide the information they request. Librarians
ask such questions as, "What new responsibilities should public libraries
accept in contributing to the direction of change?" "How far
should the public library go in developing the high levels of personal
and telephone reference service and information retrieval required
by sophisticated urban complexities?" "How many nontraditional
library activities should be sponsored by the library to acquaint the
low-income inner-city children and adults with the library's presence
in the community and the informational services it offers?" Definitive
solutions to such questions are not easily reached, but the response
to the following question will indicate the extent of the
potential solution. "How willing and ready are the public library
administrators and staff to change to meet all the information needs
of the constituency they serve?"

Issue Date:

1971

Publisher:

Graduate School of Library Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Citation Info:

In C.L. Kronus and L. Crowe (eds). 1971. Libraries and neighborhood information centers; papers presented at an institute conducted by the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library Science, October 24-27, 1971. Urbana, Il: Graduate School of Library Science: 119-124.